… until I can knit or weave again. <Sigh> Nonetheless, I’ve been keeping myself busy by baking bread.

I have the 7 quart KitchenAid Pro Line Stand Mixer (thank you Thor!), and, thanks to its powerful motor and curly-q dough hook, my fingers, hands and wrists are saved a lot of stress that would occur from hand kneading.

The newest bread that I’m experimenting with is Leinsamenbrot – a German flax seed bread. As told me by a German ex-colleague of mine, her mother practically lived on this bread, and after sampling several versions of Leinsamenbrot, I can see why! Wow. I used dark rye flour (I am partial to dark rye) and tried it first with dark flax seeds and then later with golden flax seeds, with and without sesame seeds sprinkled on the top of the loaf. (I prefer the dark flax seeds and no sesame seeds.)

Thor had a birthday recently, so I made his favorite breakfast: French toast out of Challah with raisins! Of course, I had to make Challah the day before. As the picture shows, I made a double braided Challah (a 3-strand braid on each level), but I think the top braid slipped a bit. Oh well. Thor didn’t complain. He enjoyed homemade raspberry jam on the Challah french toast and accompanying mixed fresh fruit salad. (The orange pieces are Fuyu persimmons.)

Using the KitchenAid’s pasta attachment (thank you again, Thor!) to roll out the dough to a nice, even height, I regularly make crackers from my white and dark rye sourdough discards. Earlier batches of crackers used first whole wheat flour, then einkorn flour, then white whole wheat flour with the discard. In my last couple of batches I used sprouted whole spelt flour. Wow – a whole other level of taste. I add dried rosemary to the dough and push them into current favorite topping – a mix of black and white sesame seeds – before putting them through the KitchenAid pasta roller. (Definitely worth a try for those of you who make their own sourdough crackers!)

Unable to find rye chops (aka cracked rye) locally (I even contacted a local miller who said she’d never heard of it), I’ve been experimenting with making my own using my Vitamix with its dry grains container. I made six different batches and sent them to a weaver/spinner who is also artisan baker. We both agreed batch four looks like cracked rye (or at least will after a little sifting). I want to make “Horst Bandel’s Black Pumpernickel” from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread. Here’s a picture of the bread slightly scaled down for a 9 inch Pullman pan. (Source, Fresh Loaf) I’m going to make a larger loaf and bake in a 13 inch Pullman pan. I have to share with my tasters, after all!

I am still anxiously awaiting starting to knit again. There’s only so many loaves of bread I can bake before my friends will start hiding when they see me pull into their driveway in my car or on my bike. “Oh no, it’s her again with more freshly made sourdough bread! Quick, turn out the lights!” 🙂

I know what you mean … Now that I live in another state, my daughter and her family are forced to turn to store-bought jams and preserves when they run out … They replenish their stash when they visit in the summer. 🙂

I just want to say that if your friends and neighbors hide from you when you deliver bread, feel free to pedal up my drive – it al looks delicious, and we LOVE home baked bread. 🙂 But I do hope you can be creating with wool again soon.

I guess we really do have an addiction! 🙂 My granddaughter has asked me to knit some clothes for her American Girl Doll, and I am happy to do so – I have lots of single-skein stash yarn that will be perfect. And more projects just entered my queue: My granddaughter also asked me to knit her a purple sweater with a zipper with “soft” yarn. My grandson asked me to lengthen the arms and body of the last sweater I made him last year. (He wears it every day. I’m sort of tired of it, but then I remind myself it is not about me!)

LOVE the pencil sketch!! That be us 🙂 That is cool, a pasta roller on the KA I have used the pasta roller but a pest to get it set up. As soon as I get over my ‘plague’ I am going to sift all the rye ‘chop’ experiments you sent and make the Black Pumpernickel. Keep the hands warm and ready to GO!!!